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Jackson Labs is a not-for-profit research facility that breeds and sells genetically altered mice for basic science research. Selling mice for experimentation is their primary source of revenue and they are dependent on supplemental funding from public and private sources to meet annual expenses.

Jackson reduced their employment last year by laying off 50 employees due to budget cuts required by reduced sales of lab mice.

Jackson is not considered the premier genetics research facility in the genetics industry. Jackson labs is known for breeding and selling genetically altered mice for lab
experimentation. They also have much larger competitors that produce lab mice such as Charles River labs International.

Why Collier County?
The Barron Collier Company and the EDC took unilateral
initiatives to invite Jackson Labs to expand to Ave Maria.
The offer of free land in Ave Maria and potential state and local taxpayer funding created Jackson Labs interest in pursuing the project. Jackson had no long term strategy or business plan to move to Florida. They simply have been enticed by a lucrative economic incentive proposed by BCC and the EDC.

On a human basis, private donation to NCH will provide greater heathcare benefits to the community than to JL basic research. When genetics related technology is proven safe and effective by the FDA after a decade of clinical validation trials and becomes commercially available, NCH will have sufficient funds to purchase the technology to the benefit of everyone in the community.

Jackson Labs continues to control the message to tax payers of Collier County and has failed to produce a promised business plan to the Productivity Committee and the public that charts their strategy for a ROI and economic stimulus to the community in return for $130 Million dollars of local tax payer funding and $120 required in private donations from our residents. How far would JL get if they were seeking funding from traditional venture capital funding sources on Wall Street without a business plan or reasonable evidence of commercial success and ROI? Why should our Collier County tax payers accept anything less?